The waiting is the hardest part

In college football, some fans suffer much longer than others.  Even though Duke has been about as bad as it gets during this decade, at least the program’s middle aged fans can remember the glory days under Steve Spurrier.  Twenty years ago, Duke actually shared an ACC title under the Ol’ Ballcoach’s watch.

Two decades is a long time, but check out how long these fan bases have waited since their teams last won or shared a league title of any kind:

Indiana (1967, Big 10 co-champions)
Iowa State (1912, Missouri Valley Conference champions)
Kansas (1968, Big 8 co-champions)
Kentucky (1976, SEC co-champions)
Kent State (1972, MAC champions)
Memphis (1971, Missouri Valley Conference champions)
Minnesota (1967, Big 10 co-champions)
Mississippi (1963, SEC champions)
Mississippi State (1941, SEC champions)
Missouri (1969, Big 8 co-champions)
New Mexico (1964, WAC co-champions)
New Mexico State (1960, Border Conference champions)
NC State (1979, ACC champions)
North Carolina (1980, ACC champions)
Ohio (1968, MAC champions)
Oklahoma State (1978, Big 8 co-champions)
South Carolina (1969, ACC champions)
Temple (1967, Middle Atlantic Conference champions)
Vanderbilt (1923, Southern Conference champions)

The presence of four former Big 8 teams is a testament to how Oklahoma and Nebraska dominated that conference, and to a lesser degree the Big 12 Conference that all those schools are currently members of.

Five current SEC members haven’t tasted championship glory in decades either, which shows how concentrated the base of power in that league has traditionally been.  Although South Carolina only joined the league in 1992, that program has yet to even win its own division over that time span.

One league whose members are conspiciously absent from the list above is the Pac-10.  If this roll call of futility had been put together in the early 90’s, that conference would have been extremely well represented (Oregon and Washington State weren’t exactly filling their respective trophy cases back in the day).

But from 1992 through 2000, every single member of the Pac-10 won or shared a league title.   That stands as one of the strangest cases of decade long parity that any BCS conference has ever experienced.